3 Hendrick drivers starting in top 4 spots at Coca-Cola 600

CONCORD, N.C. — Hendrick Motorsports’ quest to pass Petty Enterprises as the NASCAR Cup Series race team with the most wins all-time got off to a good start on Saturday as Kyle Larson captured the pole for the Coca-Cola 600, with two of his teammates starting in the row behind him.

Ricky Stenhouse will start second, followed by Hendrick teammates Chase Elliott and William Byron. Chevrolets dominated qualifying by taking six of the top seven spots for NASCAR’s longest race, a grueling 400-lap marathon at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Car owner Rick Hendrick’s other driver, Alex Bowman, will start seventh.

Hendrick Motorsports is tied with Petty Enterprises with 268 Cup Series wins.

Larson captured his first pole since June 2019 at Sonoma with a lap of 180.282 mph, narrowly edging Stenhouse in the one-lap qualifying by .07 seconds.

“It’s really cool for the Chevys,” Larson said. “There are lot of Chevys up toward the front of the field.”

Elliott is going for back-to-back victories after capturing last week’s rain-shortened race at Circuit of The Americas for his first win of the season.


More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports